


Our Love's the Perfect Crime

by Wickedlovely01



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Fluff, High School, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, angry nerd cas, fucking otp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 14:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2472260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wickedlovely01/pseuds/Wickedlovely01
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel Novak, a lonely nerd outcast meets Dean Winchester, a closet geek and tremendous basketball player. When fate puts them both in detention, their love and attraction for the other begins almost instantly, and the only thing standing in there way is Cas’ mother, Naomi. Will they end up together and become a legendary high school sweetheart couple? Or will they crumble in dust and ash, doomed to be split apart forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Love's the Perfect Crime

**Author's Note:**

> I'm currently looking for a beta for this story, so message me if you are interested. All mistakes are mine. I hope you enjoy this story. As far as updating I'm planning on adding a new chapter every months so keep a lookout!

Cas stared at his hands, the bruises already beginning to show across his knuckles, purple galaxies with green planets and yellow stars scored into his skin. He held an ice pack to his head, trying not to wince from the throbbing, blinking away tears of pain. The boy sat in the waiting room, dreading the moment when his name would be called. It wasn’t his fault what happened. Cas sniffed, hating that he seemed so weak at this time when he needed to be strong. His adversary, Raphael, was currently talking to the principal right now, getting his fate at their high school handed to him in the form of a pink slip and disappointed looks. 

“Castiel Novak,” The secretary called out, hardly looking up from her computer that she had spend the past ten minutes typing away at with fake nails, the clicking sound grating to the boys ears. In his rage and sorrow and fear, Cas had wanted to rip the keyboard from underneath her coffee coloured hands, but had refrained. “The principal is ready to see you now.” He stood up, letting his hurt hands fall to his sides and brush against the black sweater vest he wore on top of a white collared shirt. 

As he walked the small corridor towards the office, Cas passed the boy with whom he had a quarrel with not even an hour ago. The other boy had a wicked sneer on his face, teeth having a remarkable resemblance to candy corn. Buzzed brown hair sat on his head like freshly mowed grass that had been touched by death. Cas looked down at his hands, hoping to catch a glimpse of a light pink slip, but there was nothing. He shook his head, lowering his head and pushed forward towards the principals office. When Castiel stepped inside, it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. Most of his nightmares as a child involved going to a place such as this, and a man that wasn’t a man told him that he was a very naughty and cruel boy, and the nightmare always ended with Cas crying on the floor as the man laughed at him. But in reality things were much different. 

The room was quite big for just one person to occupy, and it was filled with bookshelves packed with thick volumes that Cas could probably read in a day or two. Chairs draped with blue upholstery were lined against one wall, stark against the buttercup yellow paint the crept up until it reached the edge of the ceiling. It smelled nice as well, like his mother’s homemade sugar cookies artistically covered with strawberry frosting, and it was so prominent that Castiel’s stomach growled, and he remembered that he hadn’t eaten lunch yet today, and that he probably wouldn’t get to. The carpet under his feet felt hard, as all school issued things did, and Cas would know. The textbooks? Hard. The so called desserts? Hard. And the moulded plastic chairs that sat in each classroom like a artificial orange cage? Those were hard too, and the carpet wasn’t any different. 

The boy swallowed hard as he walked further inside. The principal sat in his chair, smiling warmly as if they were best friends and were visiting each other. Cas had made a habit of not setting foot in his office since the first day of his freshmen year, and up until today that method had worked. “Please, Castiel, there is no need to be nervous. Come, have a seat.” The man said, gesturing to another replica of the same blue chair. Cas obliged, timid and shy and scared. “Do you know why you’re here?” The principal said, leaning forward on his hands, and Castiel saw weak brown eyes search his dark blue ones. 

Of course I know why I’m here. I’m here because I defended myself. Castiel wanted to say, but refrained from doing so. He knew the best way to lessen his punishment was to play along with what the adult wanted, even if said adult treated you like a kindergartner. “I’m here b-because I fought with another student.” Cas stuttered softly, still incredibly intimidated. His biggest fear besides failing and earning his mother’s disapproval was getting into trouble, and currently he was neck deep in it. He looked at the principal, noticed the shoots of grey that shot out from the edges of the brown crew cut like lightning bolts. Around the sepia irises the skin was wrinkled like old paper, evidence from forcing a smile in the hallways. But there was no smile on his face, just a mild frown that suggested disappointment of the highest degree, which made the pit in Castiel’s stomach develop even bigger.

“Yes.” The man agreed, and Cas once again stared down at his pale hands, twiddling with his thumbs. “Look, Castiel-” 

“It’s Cas.” Castiel was the name that was used only around his house by his mother, and when the principal used it it sounded wrong and foreign, and Cas didn’t like it.

“Cas,” He repeated harshly. “I know you’re a good boy. You’re an excellent student; I’ve seen your grades. I’m sure this was an accident, and I’m sure you’ve learned your lesson. But you can’t go unpunished, you know that, right?” Castiel nodded, reaching up and placing the ice pack back on his pounding head. Even though he put up a good fight, he still got his ass beat. “Usually with this sort of thing I’ll suspended students for a couple of days, but considering you have nothing on your permanent record I’m willing to let your walk off with a detention slip.” 

“Kay.” Cas said softly, choking the word out. Tears stung his eyes like needles, threatening to spill. He wouldn’t cry, he couldn’t cry. Crying was for five year olds who didn’t get the type of candy bar that they wanted, it wasn’t for men in their sophomore year of high school who got a detention. So Cas didn’t cry, rather turned the sadness and the tears into anger. “Yeah, but I didn’t see Raphael get detention.” He sat up straight rather than slump and be dismissive. Stature was everything. 

The Principal sighed, leaning forward and clasping his hands together, pursing his lips. “What his punishment is is none of your concern.”

“I’m just saying it’s not fair. He started the fight and I merely defended myself. So why am I the one being punished?” 

“Raphael is on the varsity football team, and a valuable asset to us. Giving him detention would stain his permanent record and prevent him from playing. You were also a distraction to him, and I know you’ve learned to get a teacher when something is going wrong.”

Cas tried not to roll his eyes. Even as a child there had been a rebellious streak inside of him, manifesting into this dark spot in his soul that made him so unlike the rest of his siblings. It was one of the reason he got along so well with his older brother, Gabriel, who had been to the principals more times than Cas could care to count. “Forgive me, but isn’t that a form of discrimination? Giving one student a detention just because he’s not a jock who is taking the school to the championship..” 

It was just like in the movies, the nerds and geeks all got an unfair disadvantage because they weren’t big or tough or strong and they didn’t make the high school look good because who the hell cared about academics? Who cared about near perfect SAT scores and straight A honor roll students? Cas remembered back to the fight, thinking how if he would have held out a bit more longer, he would have won. The pounding in his head became a bit more painful, like a tiny dwarf was hammering the inside of his skull with a rubber mallet, and Castiel just wanted to go home and bury his whole self underneath the downy blankets of his bed and forget that this entire thing happened. When he had panic attacks, that was what he did.

“Mr. Novak, are you listening to me?” The principal’s voice snapped him back to reality with a harsh jerk and Cas nodded, movements small and robotic. He was still getting over the shock of detention. What sort of people would he meet? “I’m not having this argument with you. You’re dismissed.” Castiel nodded again, fiery anger not quenched. The principal waved his hand, motioning him to get out of the room. He did, not wanting to cause anymore trouble or talk to such a pig headed man. As Cas’ foot stepped out of the door, the principal called out a “Have a nice day,” and Cas mumbled something that he himself didn’t quite understand. 

As he walked out of the waiting room, Castiel looked back at the wall of chairs in which he had recently been in. They were all vacant save for one, which was occupied with a boy with a devil-may-care attitude. He was reclining on the chair, hands behind his head and eyes closed, a pallid smile on his tan face, which was dotted with freckles. Cas looked at him, wondering why he wasn’t sitting there with a hunched back as if he was an old man, wringing his hands and sweating buckets. Obviously the strange boy had a different demeanor towards the principal then Cas did, and so he shrugged and walked out, pulling out his cell phone to call his mother. 

“Mom,” Cas said after the second ring. Naomi Novak, widower and mother of five, was very active in her children’s lives and always answered the phone without fail. If she didn’t, Castiel was to believe that she was dead. His voice was wavering, shaky like an old rusty weathervane. 

“Hello, Cas.” Her voice came through the other end, soft and sweet spoken. If Castiel wouldn’t have had to be the bearer of bad news he would have been soothed by it. “Why are you calling me? Don’t you have class?” 

“Well I did have lunch, but something happened.” He was dancing around the issue, avoiding it as if it were fire itself, ready to burn at the slightest touch. “And it resulted in me going to the principal’s office and contracting a detention.” There was quiet on the other end, unbelievably quiet. It was the kind that left a pit in Cas’ stomach, growing into a blackened, shrunk tree of disappointment and disapproval. When his mother was quiet like this, it was a horrible sign and it made Cas afraid.

“Okay.” Was the only reply that came through. The word sounded carefree and light, as if his mom was fine with her youngest son getting a detention and that wasn’t like her at all. Naomi was the dictator of the Novak household, wearing a flour painted apron like a cape and a sharp voice like a thorny crown. If things didn’t go her way it was bad, and even when things were good they were bad. Cas hadn’t noticed his oppression until Gabriel pointed it out to him, and still, even two years later, he had not broken out of the chains his mother had cast upon him at birth. He was scared to. 

So Castiel was surprised when his mother just said okay. “That- that’s it? Just okay? No.... No ‘You will be grounded for six months and you will eat gruel for the next month and a half?” 

“Not all of us can be perfect, Castiel.” Which hurt more than anything else a mother could say. His mother craved perfectionism in every aspect of her life, from the hairs on her head to the toenails on her feet. Her ambition and want had dripped acidically down into her children, Cas especially. He stood there in the doorway of the waiting room, not sure what to stare at and not sure how to swallow. Time was syrup, slow as a teetering child learning to walk. Castiel could hear his heartbeat. “I’m not having Gabriel wait for you. You’re perfectly capable of walking home. We will talk when you get home.” His mother hung up with a burst of static and a faint click, leaving Cas to wallow in silence and disbelief, not sure what to do or where to go until the bell rang and he sprinted towards Advanced Calculus. 

| | | | |

By the time detention rolled around, Castiel had contracted a black eye on the right side of his face. It was throbbing, just as his head was doing, and the gift of ice and numbness had long since passed when the bag melted. Cas was too big of a chicken to go back to the nurse and ask for another one, and so he had muddled through the rest of the day. Now he shuffled down the hallway like a zombie, feet shuffling and body stiff like a wooden board, the only thing that was missing from the picture was drooling. Cas dreaded sitting in a classroom for an hour and a half after school with kids that he didn’t want to know and didn’t want to be associated with. 

Little Castiel Novak had been fatherless from the moment he was born 16 1/2 years ago. It had been up to his mother to raise him and feed him and clothe him, as she had done with all three children before him. He muddled through childhood with a placid personality and a quizzical expression as if he understood everything but nothing at the same time. His mother taught him to be a intelligent boy, and by the time he was three had read most books recommended for first graders. Cas was also a fearful child, not wanting to do any wrong and avoiding trouble. In short, he was a soldier. Walking into detention felt like entering the enemy’s camp. 

As Cas sat down he tried to control the shaking of his legs and the sweating of his hands. He had taken a seat in the very front row because most of these kids were people who wanted the back of the classroom to himself. Castiel got out his books and adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose so they weren’t drooping over. If detention was good for anything it was studying, and Cas, being in honors and AP courses, took this unfortunate situation as a golden opportunity to study and do extra homework. Good grades were everything to the boy, they branded him and made him who he was, so he wasn’t going to fail.

“Hey,” A voice suddenly called out, close to Cas’ ear. He jumped a bit and turned his head to look at the person. It was the boy he had seen a couple of hours ago in the principal’s office, the one with the dusting of freckles that looked like flecks of cinnamon. Castiel sucked in a breath and leaned back, invaded by lack of personal space. Surely this boy couldn’t be a regular here? Cas had seen him around school, but had never had a conversation with him. He knew that the mysterious boy was a basketball player, popular, and a senior, which was everything that Castiel wasn’t. If sports were so important to the boy, then why was he here when it would have an impact on when or even if he played. 

“H-Hello.” Cas finally said, pulling himself back up and actually looking at the kid who had made the desk on the right of him his home for the hour and a half that they were here. He had light brown hair, the color of coffee with cream mixed in until it was a perfect blend, and it was cut into a military cut, though not buzzed. His eyes were green, one of the most beautiful shades of green that Cas had ever seen that he could only describe them as melted candy green apples that hadn’t fully hardened. The boy wore a leather jacket that Cas could tell was worn and frayed, though he obviously cared a lot about such a piece of clothing. Along with a inky shirt that was tight fitting and dark jeans, he held himself as a rebel. Rebels were exactly the kind of people Castiel was warned to stay away from, but he couldn’t stay away from this boy it seemed. 

“Haven’t seen you around-” He began, but quickly sat down and shut up as a teacher came into the classroom. The teacher, whom Castiel had never had before, seemed to have a dark fuzzy caterpillar growing on his upper lip. He had a greasy combover and a potbelly, evidence that he was well into his forties. Cas sat up a little straighter in his chair and folded his hands like an eager child on his first day of school. 

“Welcome to detention.” The teacher drawled, taking a seat in the chair at the front of the room. “No talking, no usage of cellphones or other electronics, no sleeping. You break these rules and there’ll be consequences.” With that, he leaned back in his seat and folded his hands behind his hands.

Then the boy leaned towards Castiel again. “Anyways, I haven’t seen you around here. This your first time?” 

Cas nodded.

“What’d you do?” 

Cas shrugged. “Got into a fight. Quit talking.” His voice was low but full of warning. The boy clearly seemed to have a complete disregard for the no talking rule, and Castiel wasn’t going to get in even more trouble because of it. 

“What? You? Nah, you’re too scrawny.” The boy scrunched up his nose in disbelief and Cas rolled his eyes, staring back at the pages of his science textbook, black words jumping out from white backdrop. It was hard to concentrate with the boy talking to him like this. “How’d it happen?” 

Cas sighed in annoyance and began his story of plight, otherwise known as the time Castiel Novak fell from Grace and ruined his entire life. 

He sat in the lunchroom, eating the goulash his mother had sent him from home, as she believed the school didn’t provide all the needed nourishment that her children needed. He dragged the white plastic fork along the cold surface, scoring lines in the almost solid sauce. There was no one around him, there never was. HIs brothers either didn’t care about him if they were here, or they had graduated and moved away. Michael was a lawyer in New York City, following in his mother’s ambitious footsteps. Lucifer was six feet under, the bullet hole that ravaged his brain long since stopped bleeding. Gabriel was too popular to be seen with his nerdy kid brother, and so was hanging out with the mob of blonde cheerleaders he had somehow manage to charm. Castiel peered enviously at his older brother, who had a cherry lollipop dangling precariously on his lower lip. Why was he so popular? Their little sister, Anna, was in 4th grade at the elementary school down the hill, probably at recess galloping across the grassy fields acting like a horse. 

“Well well well,” A deep and gruff voice sounded vaguely close to Cas’ ear. It belonged to Raphael, the school’s starter quarterback. With his gang of cronies, he was pretty much unstoppable and could do whatever he wanted without so much as a slap on the wrist. “If it isn’t my favorite little nerd.” 

“Go away Raphael.” Castiel warned, staring at his long since cold food, trying to force a lump down his throat. There was a loud slam on the table, shaking it.

“I expect my homework to be done by midnight tonight.” The football player continued on. Everyday was like this. Everyday at lunch Raphael would come and demand for Castiel to do his homework and finish his projects, and everyday Castiel did it. He was afraid, he was obedient. He didn’t question why he of all people were chosen for this ‘special’ task, just went along with it because anything was better than being humiliated. However, this day was different. Cas didn’t know why it was, it just was. Like he finally realised he was being used.

“No.”

“Excuse me?” 

“I said no.” Flattened palms turned into quiet fists of rage. 

Cas knew through observation that populars thought that they got whatever they wanted when they wanted it. If anybody in the Novak household was popular, it would have been Gabriel, and that statement rang true for him. The theory also worked on Raphael, who had grabbed the end of Cas’ collar and lifted him up off of his chair. Castiel thought he had bad breath and an even worse face. A dark fist came up, smacked down, and collided with his jaw bone, sending-

“Mr. Novak!” The voice of the teacher overseeing them snapped the boy back to reality. Dean had finally taken a seat next to him and was listening intently. “Stop talking.” 

“S-sorry.” Cas stuttered out, embarrassed and ashamed. He laid his head on his science textbook and closed his eyes. This day wasn’t going well. Even this morning, when he had no idea what was going to happen to him, Cas had burnt his toast and stubbed his toe on the coffee table and forgot his homework for History. 

He stayed in that position for the rest of detention, twiddling with his thumbs under the desk. His fingers were bruised from fighting and though the cuts had scabbed over, they still hurt. Cas wanted to pick at the new scabs, but he knew better. The homework the boy had planned on doing remained untouched in his backpack, white papers void of calculus answers or essays of the french revolution. It became so quiet that Castiel could hear the ticking of the clock on the other side of the room. The silence was only broken when someone smacked their gum, and the teacher forced them to spit it out. 

Cas wondered what his mother would say to him when he got home. Certainly she wouldn’t be at all pleased that he’d gotten into a fight. He knew what she’d say. ‘The Novak’s have a reputation to maintain!’ her voice would be shrill and she’d screech like a hawk. ‘Do you want to embarrass the entire family? Do you want to get into a good college like Michael?’ Michael Michael Michael. Naomi always compared Cas to his older brother, even when she knew that they were not the same people. Michael was the business man of the family, his jaw always set in a serious fashion, and Cas had never known him to laugh. Michael didn’t have a creative bone in his body and depended on science more than fantasy and illusion. Cas knew that the oldest son didn’t have much of a childhood, and what little one he did have was ruined. Michael, on top of being the most successful (so far) of the Novak offspring, was the only one who had known their father. Lucifer and Gabriel were Irish Twins, only a couple months apart, and they had barely learned to walk when their father walked out on him and a newly pregnant Naomi. Michael was crushed. Many times Castiel had tried to ask his brother what their father was like, but Michael would brush him off and go do some ‘big kid’ thing or yell at him to mind his own business. 

On the flip side you had Castiel, who was the black sheep of the Novak family. He was the quiet one, always able to hide in the shadows and go unnoticed. He wasn’t anything special, as told by his brothers and mother. Cas’ talents included being socially awkward, being helplessly stupid when it came to pop culture references, and having next to no friends. The only things he excelled in was academics of all sorts and drawing. His room wasn’t plain, rather filled up with pinned up sketches of the forest a few miles east of the town, or a self portrait of himself. A lot of the times Castiel drew what he felt, which was anger and shame and sadness. He hardly ever pinned those up, rather burned them for fear of being discovered. If there was one thing that Cas hated being, it was being compared to Michael. He wasn’t his older brother and his mother knew that. She just compared them to get Castiel to be on a tighter leash. Needless to say it worked. 

When detention ended, Castiel packed up his things gingerly, sliding the textbook into his backpack like it was the most precious thing in the entire universe. Really it was just an excuse to let the mysterious boy who had got him in trouble to leave before he did. It wasn’t that Cas didn’t like him, it was just that he’d gotten him in trouble and it didn’t sit well with him. There was some sort of grudge that had been built in the hour that Cas had spent sitting with his head down on the textbook. He walked out of the school, heading to down the football field parking lot to go home. It was two and a half miles to get home, which meant that Castiel wouldn’t get home until late. Which meant no dinner because Gabriel and Anna would eat it all. It was first come first serve in the Novak household. Eat or be eaten. Over the years he’d grown quite used to it and found high school to be almost the same. On his way out, however, he saw Gabe, and Cas paused his brisk walk to talk to his brother. 

“I thought mom said not to wait for me?” Castiel asked, cocking his head a little to the right and peering at Gabe as if he was reading him. 

“I’m not.” Gabriel replied. He was sprawled out on the hood of his dark blue truck, lollipop stuck between his lips as it always was. A cheerleader was beside him, cleavage showing and legs poking out of a too short skirt. She was rubbing her hands across Gabe’s clothed chest, giggling softly as she did so. On top of being popular, Castiel’s older brother was also notorious for being a ladies man and a player, and he wondered why this girl was with him. In a day or two he’d break up with her like he did with everyone and she’d try to extract some form of revenge on him.

“Okay so why are you here?” 

“Cassie just go home before I beat your ass. There are some things you’ll never understand, dating and love being two of them.” 

“But-“ 

“Go. Home. Castiel.” The youngest son had no choice but to obey. 

As he walked away from his brother, Cas kicked the gravel beneath his feet, sending grey rocks flying through the air as if they were petrified birds. Faintly he heard a shriek of laughter and happiness issue from the cheerleader, and a growl of pleasure from his brother. What did Gabriel know about love? Cas was sure love didn’t mean screwing with girl’s minds. Love didn’t mean cheating. Love didn’t mean lots of things that Gabe did to women, and Castiel thought it was unfair that his brother told him he knew nothing about love. He just hadn’t found the right person yet. Cas was almost positive that he was capable of loving and dating someone that he cared about more than getting A’s and pleasing his perfectionist mother. But all the girls in the hallway never struck his fancy, they never made Castiel fluster with nervousness and blush like liking her was wrong. 

His pace became faster the angrier he became. He didn’t know who he was more mad at: Gabe or the mysterious boy or himself. On one hand Gabriel was probably just annoyed with Cas for interrupting him and was probably joking with him and probably didn’t mean it. He was family, after all, and Castiel was huge on family, always quick to forgive and eager to forget. The boy walked about half a mile before a roar of an engine right beside him, making him jump. 

“Hey.” Oh no. Not him. Not the boy from detention. Cas buried his head a little deeper into his collared shirt and walked a little faster. 

“Go away.” He growled at him like he’d growled at Raphael. 

“Whoa, why’re you so angry with me?” The boy sounded genuinely curious. like he honestly didn’t know he had done wrong. As Cas walked further, the boy kept driving closer and closer to him, little bursts of exhaust exhuming from the pipes of the old car. 

“You made me look like a fool and a hooligan.” 

“Isn’t that what you are for getting into a fight with the first string quarterback?” 

“Whatever, just get out of here.” 

The sky had continuously been a heather grey the entire day, and not a shine of sun could get through the thick clouds. Birds were silent, the only sounds of nature that could be heard was the whispering of the fast approaching winter wind brushing through the evergreen trees and the bare branches of the naked ones. Castiel had hoped it wouldn’t rain, but with everything in his life gone astray he didn’t count on it not. Sure enough, it started to sprinkle, and soon after it began to poor. Cas yelled in exasperation and frustration. The boy hadn’t listened to him and was still driving slowly next to him, the window down. 

“D’you wanna ride?” He asked, and Castiel turned to him, blue eyes blazing with heated fire. 

“No. Not from you. I’d rather fall and break my next in a ditch than get a ride from you.” 

The boy sighed, running his free hand through his short hair. “Look, I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do, but c’mon man, it’s fucking pouring. Just get in the goddamn car before you catch pneumonia or some shit like that.” 

“Fine.” 

A dripping Castiel got into the passenger seat of the boy’s car unhappily, setting his soaked backpack on the floor. He crossed his arms and looked out the now closed window, refusing to thank or acknowledge the boy beside him. Cas was surprised when the other boy leaned over and turned on the heater. Cas wasn’t going to say anything but he was silently thankful that he had done that. There was music playing on a low volume, a band Castiel had never heard of and the song was even more foreign. 

“I’m Dean.” Said the now unnameless boy.

“Cas.” Said Cas, though very reluctantly. 

“Was that your brother that you were talking to back there?” Dean asked, and Cas nodded. “Man he’s a dick.” Cas’ head snapped towards Dean, confusion evident in his entire face. 

“You don’t even know him. How can you make those assumptions? You weren’t even a part of that conversation.” 

“I don’t know, all I’m saying is that he’s a dick for saying you don’t understand love or dating.”

“Maybe I don’t. I do not understand a lot of things. Like you.” 

“I’m not that hard to figure out.” Dean said, and Castiel had no response so he stayed quiet and the conversation staled soon after. He sat up with perfect stature, back not touching the back of the leathered seat and hands folded in his lap. Through the rain it was hard to see the road ahead, everything was so grey and dreary. Cas wondered if Gabe was caught up in the storm, but then he remembered he’d said to him and decided that he didn’t care either way. The heat felt nice on his face and it dried his clothes so Castiel felt less like a scrawny homeless cat living out its meagre existence in a cardboard box and more like a real person. It was amazing what a change of temperature could do to a person.

He heard Dean chuckle a little bit. “You can relax you know. I may be over protective of my baby but I”m not going to kill you for leaning back.” Cas did so, feeling a little more comfortable with Dean than he had been. “So you never finished your story in detention.” 

“There is not much more to tell.” 

“Tell me anyways.” 

“Okay.” 

A dark fist came up, smacked down, and collided with his jaw bone, sending stars to shoot across Castiel’s line of vision as if he was travelling lightyears in space. Everything went black for a moment, and he found himself on the ground, palms stinging and face throbbing. He grunted and got back up without hesitation, making his way towards Raphael. He wasn’t going to go down fighting. He wasn’t going to lose. Cas was tired of being their puppet. Cas swung at the dark boy, missing. 

“Oh, does the little baby nerd need help?” Raphael said, sneering. He stepped once again towards Castiel, raising his arm. “Here, allow me to show you.” He punched Cas in the gut, sending the boy flying towards the cold concrete ground and causing him to lose his breath. Once again Castiel got up and he changed his tactic. Raphael was hoping for a forward attack, and big brutes like him only knew a couple of moves just so they could impress their friends. So Cas kicked his shins and surprised the dark boy, who in turn spiralled to the floor, gasping in disbelief. Castiel was hunched over and trying to get his breath back, but nonetheless he smiled triumphantly and pinned Raphael to the floor. He punched him. Again and again and again until there wasn’t even a face under all that blood, but Cas suspected it was more his than Raphael’s, he had always been a weak boy made of china and glass. 

However, the tides turned when Raph suddenly regained his strength, and he pushed Cas back on the ground. He squirmed, but Raphael had a good hold on him, and in turn punched him in any place that he could. It wasn’t until a teacher came that Castiel was almost out cold, one more punch and it would have knocked him out. 

“Good for you. Someone needed to stand up to him.” Dean approved, nodding. Cas smiled, hiding his light blush. The story ended there, it stopped when he was sent to the principals. He felt glad that he’d been sent there, otherwise he’d never have met Dean. Castiel forgave him for detention and now was very much at ease. He stared at Dean again like he had back in the waiting room and in detention, and each time there had been more and more details about him. Now Cas could see that Dean clearly worked out, for the muscles in his arms were clearly defined and there wasn’t an inch of pudge on him. His lips were pink, like the colour of Anna’s walls, pale and perfect and pretty.

“My mom doesn’t think so.” Castiel said, looking down at his hands. 

“Yeah well, she don’t know Raph like I do.” Dean replied. 

“How are you aquatinted with him? Are you on the football team?”

“Nah, I play basketball, but all the sporty dudes hang out together. I’ve grown apart from them though, I only play basketball for my father.”

“Oh.” Said Cas. He knew what that felt like, doing something just because your parent wished it upon you. He felt sorry for Dean, and wanted to say so, but it wasn’t his place. After all he hardly knew the kid, and after today they probably would never see each other again. Dean was a jock, destined to be popular and handsome and perfect. Castiel was a nerd, destined to be lonely and geeky and flawed. That was just how the world worked. “What did you do to get a detention.”

“I skipped too many classes. Where do you live?” Dean’s voice cut through the silence like a blade, bringing Cas back to reality. 

“Um, just take a right here, my house is just down the street.” 

“Kay.” Dean followed his instructions, and soon Castiel was parked in front of his driveway. The house looked cold and silent and empty as it always had. It wasn’t exactly welcoming. He grabbed his book and made to get out of the car when Dean grabbed his hand softly but a little forcefully. “I like you, Cas.” 

“I like you too, Dean.” Cas got out of the car and Dean rolled down the window. He had a cocky smile on his face which complimented him nicely and Cas decided he liked Dean best with a smile on his face and laughter in his eyes. 

“See you tomorrow?”

“Sure.”


End file.
